Anchor-hoisting device for submarine boats.



Patented Dec. l6, I902.

s. LAKE.

ANCHOR HOSTING DEVICE FOR SUBMARINE BOATS.

(Application filed Feb. 19, 1902.) (No Model.)

2 She ets-Sheeit l.

UNITED STATES SIMON LAKE, OF BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT.

ANCHOR-HOISTING DEVICE FOR SUBMARINE BOATS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 716,059, dated December 16, 1902.

Original application filed May 28, 1901, Serial No. 62,207. Divided and this application filed February 19, 1902- Serial No. 94,756. (No model.)

To 00% whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SIMON LAKE, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Anchor-Hoisting Devices for SubmarineBoats, of which the following is a specification.

This application is adivision of my copending application, Serial No. 62,207,filed May 28, 1901.

This invention relates more particularly to that class of submarine boats having bearing-wheels depending from the hull, whereby they are enabled to travel upon the waterbed when their normal buoyancy is overcome by admission of water into the ballast-tanks commonly provided for the purpose. While the ballast-tanks and their appurtenances may be used exclusively for effecting submergence when the boat is not under way, it is sometimes desirable to anchor in a position intermediate the surface and the bottom as well as upon the surface, for which operations I employ one or more anchoring-weights or anchors suspended by a line or cable connected to a hoisting drum or drums mounted external to the conning-tower or turret upon a shaft or shafts passing into the latter and provided upon the inner end with means for actuating the same. Meansare also provided within the conning tower whereby the hoisting-drum may be connected and disconnected from its actuating device, so that the lookout or helmsman may personally control the raising and lowering of the boat by such apparatus, which is obviously a desideratum in connection with submarine torpedo-boats, which should be able to disappear below the surface under all conditions at an instants notice. It will be readily seen that the disengagement of the driving device from the hoisting-drum-carrying shaft enables the said drum to yield to the gravitationof the anchoring-weight for lowering the latter to the water-bed. Means are also provided within the conning-tower for indicating the amount of line unwound from said drum or drums, and hence for determining the depth of Waterin which the boat is anchored when at the surface, and subsequently its position below the surface. eration of this class of apparatus being well known, it is needless to say that submergence by such means is effected by so reducing the buoyancy of the boat after the lowering of the anchor or anchors as to render it insufiicient to support them when the Winding in of the suspending-lines draws the boat down from the surface toward the water-bed such distance as may be required, or in case the boat is traveling upon the water-bed when it is required. to anchor upon the surface or intermediate the surface and the water-bed the lines attached to the Weights are merely unwound to enable the normal buoyancy of the hull without the weights to cause it to rise toward the surface to the required position.

The present invention will be understood by reference to the annexed drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a plan, and Fig. 2 a side elevation, partly in section, through the cablehousing tubes and adjacent portion of the hull, of a submarine boat embodying my improvements. Fig. 3 is a detail sectional view, upon a much larger scale than that of the preceding figures, showing adjacent portions of the hull and conning-tower provided with one of the anchor-hoisting drums, with the means for actuating and controlling the op eration of the same from within the conningtower; and Fig. 4 is a detail front elevational view of a portion of the graduated scale for indicating the length of cable paid out in anchoring the boat.

The hull a has the usual conning-tower or turret b rising from its midship portion, as usual. The conning-tower is provided externally with lateral casings or housings 0, each containing a winding-drum d, mounted upon and fixed to the outer end portion of a horizontal shaft e, having'an outboard bearing fin said casing andhaving its inner portion projected inwardly through the wall of the conning-tower, in which it has its inboard journal into the interior of the latter through a suitable stuffing-box. tion of said shaft and against a shoulder thereon is fixed one member 9 of a friction-clutch, whose other member h is formed as a wormwheel, having peripheral teeth meshing with The general mode of op- Upon the inner por- IOO the worm t, and Whose hub is mounted loosely upon the said shaft intermediate the hub of the fixed member and the internally-threaded hub of a hand-wheel j,fitted to the externallythreaded reduced inner extremity of the shaft 6. Lines or cables 76, connected at one end to one of said drums d, are led, respectively, toward the bow and stern from their respective drums, around guide-rollers Z, and downwardly through the substantially upright tubes m, leading through the end portions of the hull to support ballast-weights or anchors n, housed in suitable recesses or Wells 0, provided for them in the under side of the boat. Each of the worms 2' is positively driven in one direction by means of an electric motor 19, to the shaft of which it is connected by sprockets and chain q, so as to positively wind up the anchor-weights it when required. By turning the hand-wheel 7' to relieve the pressure between, and thus disengage the members of the friction-clutch, the shaft e and its supporting Winding-drum d are permitted to yield to the weight of the anchor and to unwind, and thus allow the anchor to drop to the water-bed. When it is desired to wind in the line or cable 70, the motor 13 being set in motion or maintained in motion throughout the operation, the hand-wheel is turned in the opposite direction from that in which it was before described as having been moved to force the clutch members gand it into operative engagement, when the driving member it induces the rotation of the shaft 6 and the hoisting-drum fixed thereon, and hence the elevation of the weights or the descent of the boat toward the water-bed, depending upon the degree of buoyancy to which the latter may have been previously adjusted. It will be observed that each of the casings or housings c is provided with an opening upon one side for the passage of the line or cable from its respective winding-drum.

In order to register the amount of line out, and hence the elevation of the boat above the water-bed, the fixed member 9 of the clutch is provided on one of its faces with a stud or tappet r, engaging a star-Wheel 8 upon the lower end of a rotary rod or spindle t, mounted in suitable bearings u, fixed to the wall of the conning-tower above the shaft e, said rod or spindle beingscrew-threaded intermediate its bearings. To the threaded portion of this rod or spindle is fitted an internally-threaded nut 11, having a finger or pointer to and held from rotation, but permitted to move freely up and down upon its supporting-spindle t by engagement with the parallel and adjacent rods or bars :0, each being shown provided with a graduated scale, with which the pointer cooperates to register the amount of line run out, and hence the position of the anchoringweights with relation to the boat. These graduations being made, preferably, from actual test will serve to indicate with sufficient accuracy the measurements which they are designed to register. It is needless to state that any other specific form of indicator for a like purpose may be employed in lieu of that above described Without departing from the present invention, and it is therefore to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the precise construction and arrangement of parts for the indicating device herein shown and described. It is further obvious that the particular details of construction of the anchor-hoisting mechanism as above described are not essential to the invention, which is capable of embodiment in widely-different forms and modifications without departure therefrom.

Having thus set forth the nature of the invention, what I claim herein, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination with the hull of a submarine boat, of a conning-tower or turret, a hoisting-drum exterior to said conning-tower, ashaft entering the wall of said conning-tower and carrying said drum upon its outerportion, means applied to the inner portion of said shaft for rotating it, an anchoring-weight, and a line connected at one end to said weight and at the other end to said drum.

2. The combination with the hull of a submarine boat, of a conning-tower or turret, cylindricalcasin gs applied to the exterior of said conning-tower, hoisting-drums within said casings, shafts passing through the walls of said conning-tower and carrying said hoisting-drums upon their outer portions, means applied to the inner portions of said shafts for rotating them, anchoring-weights, vertical tubes passing through the body of said hull, lines attached at one end to said weights beneath the hull, extending upwardly through said vertical tubes and connected above the deck to said hoisting-drums, and guide-rollers or guides for directing said lines between said weights and hoisting-drums.

3. The combination with the hull of a submarine boat, of a conning-tower or turret projecting above the deck of the same, a shaft extending through the wall of said conningtower, a hoisting-drum mounted upon the outer portion of said shaft, a power-driven actuating device applied to the inner portion of said shaft, an anchoring-weight, a line from said weight to said hoisting-drum, and means for disconnecting said shaft from its said actuating device whereby said shaft may be released to permit the unwinding of the line and lowering of the Weight.

4-. The combination with the hull of a submarine boat, of a conning-tower or turret projecting above the deck of the same, a shaft extending through the wall of said conningtower, a hoisting-drum mounted upon the outer portion of said shaft, an anchoringweight, a line attached to said weight at one end and at the opposite end to said hoistingdrum, a friction-clutch member fixed upon the inner portion of said shaft, a Worm-wheel having a cooperating clutch member mounted adjacent thereto loosely upon said shaft, a

to said weight at one end and at the opposite end to said hoisting-drum, a friction-clutch member fixed upon the inner portion of said shaft, a worm-wheel having a cooperating clutch member mounted loosely upon said shaft adjacent to said fixed clutch member, a power-driven worm meshing with said wormwheel, and a hand-wheel having a threaded hub applied to the threaded part of said shaft and adapted'when turned to establish and interrupt the frictional engagement of said clutch members.

6. The combination with the hull of a submarine boat, of a conning-tower or turret projecting above the deck of the same, a shaft extending through the wall of the conningtower and provided with a screw-threaded portion adjacent to its inner end, a hoistingdrum mounted,lupon the outer portion of said shaft, an anchoring-weight, a line attached to said weight at one end and at the opposite end to said hoisting-drum, a friction-clutch member fixed upon the inner portion of said shaft, a worm-wheel having a cooperating clutch member mounted loosely upon said shaft adjacent to said fixed clutch member,

a power-driven worm meshing with said Wormwheel, a hand-wheel having a threaded hub applied to the threaded part of said shaft and adapted when turned to establish and to interrupt the frictional engagement of said clutch members, and an indicator applied to the fixed clutch member for indicating the amount of line run off from the hoisting-drum.

7. The combination with a submarine boat,

an anchorin gweight, a hoisting-drum, means for actuating said hoisting-drum, and a line connecting said weight with said drum, of an indicator connected withsaid drum comprising an intermittently-rotated threaded rod or spindle, a nut fitted thereto and carrying a pointer or finger, and a graduated scale adj acent to and parallel with said rod or spindle and coacting with said pointer in indicating the length of line unwound from said drum.

8. The combination with a submarine boat, an anchoring-weight, a hoisting-drum, a line connecting said weight with said hoistingdrum, means for actuating said hoisting-drum including a shaft provided with a fixed and a movable friction-clutch member with means for establishing and interrupting their frictional engagement, a stud or tappet upon said fixed clutch member, a rotary threaded rod or spindle having a star-wheel engaging said stud or tappet at each rotation of said clutch member, a nut applied to said rod or spindle carrying a finger or pointer, and a graduated scale disposed in the direction of the line of movement of said pointer and adjacent thereto.

9. The combination with the hull of a sub marine boat, of a conning-tower or turret projecting above the deck of the same, a shaft extending through the Wall of said conningtower, a hoisting-drum mounted upon the outer portion of said shaft and means for actuating it, an anchoring-weight, a line connecting said weight with said hoisting-drum, and an indicator connected with the inner portion of said shaft within the conning-tower or turret for determining the length of line paid out from said drum in lowering the weight to the Water-bed.

Signed at Elizabeth, in the county of Union and State of New Jersey, this 6th day of February, A. D. 1902.

\ SIMON LAKE.

Witnesses:

L. B. MILLER, HENRY J. MILLER. 

